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Dear Father Angelo,
I would like to know if by being persistent in prayer one always finds God. I am aware that we have to consider the Lord’s timing and we must be prepared to wait.
Thanks for all the insights you give in this service.
May the Lord bless you with a long life.
Dearest,
1. St. Thomas said that “the insistent prayer addressed directly to men makes us annoying to them, while the insistent prayer addressed to God makes us familiar and appreciated by Him”. (Summa Theologica, N. 548).
Therefore, persevering in prayer is all to our benefit.
2. In Psalm 81.11, God tells Israel that also represents each one of us: “Open your mouth for me to fill it”. Translated into other words, God says: Ask me great things, I will amply satisfy all your yearning and desires.
3. A few verses before, however, he had said: “Listen, my people (…) Israel, if only you would listen to me!
You shall have no strange gods, shall worship no alien god. I, Yahweh, am your God, who brought you here from Egypt” (Psalm. 81,9-11).
This means that God promises great rewards to those who remain his faithful allies by listening to his voice and keeping his law.
4. Even Saint Bernard wrote: “Whoever truly loves God asks him for great things: God refuses nothing to those who are thirsty”.
Such was Moses who dared to say to God: “For I have found favor with you, do let me see your glory! (Ex 33,18).
Such was Philip who asked Jesus to show him the Father (John 14,8). “Men of this kind undertake great deeds”. (S. Bernard, Sermons on the Song of Songs, XXXII, IV-8).
5. Therefore, the great merit of persistent prayer is precisely that of keeping us constantly united and focused on God.
This is an important grace.
And sometimes it is the grace that the Lord wants to give us while he makes us wait for his time to hear us in what we have asked.
Wishing you always to be like this before God I assure you of my prayers and I bless you.
Father Angelo